David Brooks (author)

David Gordon Brooks (born 12 January 1953 in Canberra) is an Australian poet, novelist and essayist.

He graduated from the Australian National University in 1974. In 1975 he left Australia for postgraduate study in Canada. He completed his Ph.D from the University of Toronto after returning to Australia in 1981 while teaching at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Canberra. In 1982 he began teaching at the University of Western Australia in Perth, where he met the poet Nicolette Stasko, who became his partner for the next twenty years. In 1986 he returned to the Australian National University as a lecturer, a post he held for the next four years. From 1991 until 2013 he taught Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, and from 1999 until 2013 was Director of its postgraduate writing program. He married the Slovenian translator and photographer Teja Pribac in 2005.

He is a co-editor, along with Elizabeth McMahon, for Southerly, Australia's oldest literary magazine.

His novel The Fern Tattoo was shortlisted for the 2008 Miles Franklin Award.

He is a vegan.

Books

Novels

• The House of Balthus. Allen and Unwin, 1995.
• The Fern Tattoo. University of Queensland Press, 2007.
• The Umbrella Club. University of Queensland Press, 2009.
• The Conversation. University of Queensland Press, 2012.

Poetry

• The Cold Front. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1983.
• Walking to Point Clear. Blackheath: Brandl & Schlesinger, 2005.
• Urban Elegies. Sydney: Island Press (Australia), 2007.
• The Balcony. University of Queensland Press, 2008.
• Open House. University of Queensland Press, 2015.

Short stories

• The Book of Sei and Other Stories. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1985. The Book of Sei. London: Faber & Faber, 1987.
• Sheep and the Diva. Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1990.
• Black Sheep. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997.

Non-fiction

• The Necessary Jungle: Literature and Excess. Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1990.
• De/scription. Sydney: Vagabond Press, 2000.
• The Sons of Clovis: Ern Malley, Adoré Floupette and a Secret History of Australian Poetry, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7022-3884-0

Edited

• With Brenda Walker Poetry and Gender. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1989.
• A. D. Hope: Selected Poems. Sydney: HarperCollins/Angus & Robertson, 1991.
• Suddenly Evening: Selected Poems of R.F. Brissenden. Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1991.
• The Double Looking Glass: New and Classic Essays on the Poetry of A. D. Hope. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2000.
• Selected Poetry and Prose of A. D. Hope. Sydney: Halstead Press, 2000.

External links

• Official website